Wobbly Walden defeats Williams

Ricky Walden had to dig deep to find a way past Robbie Williams, whilst Michael White was the latest seed to go out of the competition.

Ricky Walden had to work hard against Robbie Williams (photo: Independent)

Robbie Williams produced a solid display against the China Open and World Grand Prix runner-up as he just missed out on a second round berth.

Robbie Williams entertains but eventually bows out

Resuming at 5-4 to Williams, the contest picked up where it left off with not much between the two players. The pair exchanged two frames apiece in a nervy opening that saw neither player produce a break of any substance.

Yet eventually Ricky Walden's class came to the fore as he found his form in the fourteenth round. A break of 70 won him the frame, as did a 53 and a 68 in a spurt that put the world number nine just one frame away from victory. Williams fought back with the only century break of the match culminating at 104, before Walden finally sealed his progression with an 87 in the eighteenth frame to win 10-8.

Baird stuns White

Michael White looked a bag of nerves as early as Friday when he looked uncomfortable answering questions during the pre-tournament press conference. Those worries transferred into the first session where he went 5-4 down to world number 59 Sam Baird. Though White improved at the beginning of the session as he took three of the opening four frames, including breaks of 88 and 102, to lead 7-6 at the Crucible.

However Baird was not there to make up the numbers as he produced an hour of quality snooker. After drawing the game level in the fourteenth, he composed breaks of 54, 103 and 62, as White managed just 28 points. It was enough to see Baird overcome a player ranked 41 places above him to produce one of the shocks of the tournament.

Both Walden and Baird are waiting to see who their second round opponents will be, although they are likely to face John Higgins and Mark Selby respectively who both hold 7-2 leads.